When IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz this week
examined the readiness of military units at the Central Command and
near the Gaza Strip, in preparation for the possibility of violent
protests to mark Nakba Day tomorrow, Tuesday, he was acutely aware of
the possibility that the success of his forces’ best laid plans
depended on the physical well being of some 1600 Arab terrorists.

Over the past week there has been concern that this year’s ‘Nakba’
events would be more intense than usual, because of Palestinians
prisoners who are on a hunger strike in Israeli jails. The Chief of
Staff reportedly told GOC Central Command Brigadier General Nitzan
Alon: “We are hoping for the better and getting ready for the worst.”

On Monday night, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners agreed to end
their hunger strike after winning concessions from Israel to improve
their conditions, both sides announced.

Some inmates had gone without food for as long as 77 days, with a few
in a life-threatening state.

Earlier in the week, concern had been rising about the effect the
death of one of the strikers might have on Tuesday’s protests.

Nakba Day (“day of the catastrophe” in Arabic) falls on May 15, the
day of Israel’s declaration of independence. On this day Palestinians
commemorate their displacement following Israel’s 1948-49 War of
Liberation against invaders from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and
Iraq.

Estimates within the IDF are that the demonstrations will concentrate
in the areas of Bethany, Qalandiya, Ma’avar Rachel, the Erez Crossing
and inside Arab towns, but there is little fear that the protests
might spill over into violence against Israeli soldiers. Judging by
the tepid response on the part of Palestinians to the “March to
Jerusalem” last March, there isn’t much lust for large scope violence
on the Arab side.

A senior Central Command officer told the Walla news service
that “the prisoners’ strike will bring more civilians out into the
streets, but the PA security apparatus won’t allow demonstrations and
rallies to deteriorate into chaos.”

All of that could have changed dramatically if any of the hunger
striking Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails were to die.

Indeed, Amin Shoman, head of a monitoring group of Palestinian
political factions, said that if Israel did not confirm the Egyptian-
brokered deal, prisoners were going to intensify their fast and break
off further talks with prison authorities.

“The prisoners will stop taking vitamins and water and stop
negotiations with the Israel Prisons Service if they get a negative
answer,” he told AFP.

Ten prisoners were placed under medical supervision last week.

According to a Palestinian negotiator, Israel agreed to allow
Palestinian prisoners to receive family visits. The visits from Gaza
were halted in 2006 after Gaza-based terrorists had captured Israeli
soldier Gilad Shalit.

The negotiator said that Israel also agreed to curb its policy of
placing prisoners in solitary confinement, to permit prisoner phone
calls and to let prisoners engage in academic studies.

But it does not look as if Israel’s security apparatus is prepared to
do away with administrative detentions, which the hunger striking
prisoners were protesting..